trates starting to get high...help.

[mchandler]

I have cc, so that's probably part of my prob.
When i first got my tank cycled, trates were around 5-10 (for about 4 weeks). Then once I added some LR, it went through a mini-cycle for about 3-4 days. ammonia and trites are zero, but now my trates have been about 20 ~ 25 for the past week. will this ever go down? will a water change help, or will they just jump back up after a couple of days....Darn It!!!!
thanks,
matt

 

[michaeltx]

water change will lower the nitrates and also the CC doent help at all. have you stocked the tank with anything other than LR if not its a good time to change it to sand before you get a population in there.
as far as the nitrates they will go up.
ammonia is eatin by nitrite and nitrite is eaten by nitrate but there isnt anything to eat the nitrates so they will stay there until you do a water change. with a DSB the concept is that the anerobic bacteria that lives at the lower levels of the DSB that doesnt get any oxygen it will turn nitrate into nitrogen gas that will exscape the tank at the surface>
HTH
Mike

 

[david s]

I agree chandler I would swap to a dsb it will take care of trates you live in md were you can go to home depot and get southdown sand so it will not cost much then just get like 5 lbs of live sand to seed it

 

[thomas712]

Do you have anthing that can help remove the doc's from the water like a protien skimmer?
Almost all tanks with CC will have higher nitrates in them.
If this is a fish only tank then you will have less to worry about but if you are going for a reef then I would try to keep those trates under 10 ppm.
Sand is a far better biological filtration method due to its small size and greater surface area. You might want to consider changing to sand.
Thomas

 

[cboyfan2020]

also adding more live rock would help.

 

[jonathon0883]

what is considered to much cc? i had a about an inch layer over my sand and i have gotten a lot out but there is still some mixed in with the sand....should i still try to get the rest out? and if i have snails and hermits and lr in my tank..whats the best way to add some ls?

 

[thomas712]

With a 10 gallon tank most of your problems can be solved with a water change. No need for a DSB in a 10 gallon. You can just get as much of the CC out as you can. A net just skimming the surface of your substrate can help there.
From experience I would say 3 inches would be too much crushed coral
Thomas

 

[mchandler]

ok, so i should really switch to a dsb, but i am really concearned about the cycle restarting and it took a month and a half to get this complete.
what do i do with fish in meantime. I mean its not fully stock but i have prob about 225 in fish and lr. can i prevent a cycle will any of the guys survive?
thanks again for everybody's comments...just wished i would've found this site BEFORE i bout the cc!!!!

 

[michaeltx]

you might have a little cycle but if you keep your rock wet and and use the water that is in the tank now (drain it in new trash cans). use one of the trash cans for a temporary tank leave some LR in there and the fish change out the CC to sand and measure water quality and test a couple of hours later after its done. it might take till the next day for the water to clear up but the fish should be fine in the can till then. just make sure it has circulation and a heater to keep the water temp stable.
this is how I done my 100 when I was adding another 150 LBS of sand to it.
everything was fine just had to wait till the next day to readd the fish to it.
let us know what you decide to do.
Mike
BTW yeha i think you really should switch to a DSB it you will be happy with it i the long run or kick yourself for not doing it while you had a chance to/

 

[mchandler]

ok so i'm pretty sure i'm gonna do it, but would like some advice.
right now i have a 3-4 inch cc bottom with about 1/2 inch of ls on top that is slowly sinking among the cc.
would it help if i bought that natures ocean live aragonite sand you see in those 20lb bags? or maybe a mix of that and dead sand? i don't mind spending some money...just dont want it to get out of hand...around here the lfs sells it for about 27 bucks. for a 135 it would prob take about 130 pounds or so, so like 8 bags. at 27 bucks its roughly 230 bucks. how deep should the dsb be?
a 120pounds of the cc got me the 3-4inches where i am now.
thanks again guys!

 

[michaeltx]

well sand doesnt work like CC.
for a 4inch sand bed in my 100gallon it takes 225 pounds of sand and that is the least you want. so fo r a 135 it will take more.of course this is with a sand weight of 90 LBS per cubic foot.
what are the dimensions of your tank? there is a calculator for a sand bed but its on another site that I cant link to.
as far as the sand you can go all live sand but its a waste of money really. IMO
if you have access to southdown from homedepot that is supposed to be a good sand and top it off with some LS it cuts the cost down enourmously.
the other way is to get aggronite sand from the LFS most of them sell it. here its 37$ for 40 lbs of it.
Mike